


How the Blood Runs Like Guilt

by occasionalwriter



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: CPR, Gen, Hurt Stiles, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Violence, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-19
Updated: 2015-11-19
Packaged: 2018-05-02 08:40:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5241911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/occasionalwriter/pseuds/occasionalwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Jackson, do not let my best friend die.” Scott seethes into the phone, “Whatever you have to do, do it. Keep. Stiles. Alive.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	How the Blood Runs Like Guilt

“Jackson, do not let my best friend die.” Scott seethes into the phone, “Whatever you have to do, do it. Keep. Stiles. Alive.”

Jackson grunted and turned the phone to speakerphone as he set it down on the ground to his side. Then he’s putting his hands on Stiles’ shoulders where he’s lying flat on the ground, perfectly still and alarmingly pale. He uses one hand to push up Stiles’ face so he’s looking up instead of lying on his cheek. He leans over just enough to put his ear to Stiles lips and he says, “There’s no breath, Scott. He’s not breathing.”

“Then do something!” Scott yells, “I’m ten minutes away with Lydia, Derek and Isaac are a little closer but Stiles won’t make it that long.”

Jackson nods to himself and then he’s saying, “Tell me what to do. Tell me how to do CPR.”

\---

They weren’t even supposed to be at the most dangerous location. Stiles and Jackson had been sent to do cleanup more than anything, to make sure that there was no threat left over at the house where the Hunters had been staying. But, it hadn’t been empty. Two of the hunters were still there, cleaning up after themselves and, in a panicked rush, hadn’t noticed Stiles and Jackson until all four of them were standing facing each other in one of the upstairs bedroom turned planning room. 

Stiles and Jackson barely had time to glance at each other before the hunters were jumping at them with knives appearing seemingly out of thin air. It hadn’t lasted long, Jackson was taking the two of them out within a minute, but then he took a second to look over at Stiles. Stiles who was standing shell shocked and was half hunched over with his hands extended somewhat in front of him. Then his left hand was grasping at his stomach and Jackson watched blood pour out between his fingers.

Stiles looked up at him in sheer panic before he was crumpling into a heap on the floor. Jackson followed a second after. He helped to push Stiles onto his back, so he could look at his stomach and he pushed both of his hands over the one Stiles was halfheartedly using to stop the blood.

\---

“Okay, okay.” Scott said, taking a deep breath, “You have to make sure nothing is blocking his airway. Then you have to tilt his head back and pull his mouth open a little bit.”

Jackson does both of those things, and glances down at where the blood is slowing down in its flow out of Stiles’ body, “Next?”

“Put your hand on his chest, about halfway down his ribcage but directly in the middle. Then put your other hand on top of that and lock your fingers together. You’ve got to push down pretty hard, it’s not going to make his heart stop beating any more than it already has, and do it thirty times in a row.”

Scott listens and hears Jackson huffing a little bit over the phone, breathing out in time with his compressions on Stiles’ chest. Distantly, he thinks he hears a rib crack and it makes him wince back into the seat of the car that Lydia is driving. He can see that Lydia keeps glancing over at him but his whole focus is on the road in front of them and he’s leaning forward as if that is going to make the car go faster.

“Scott!” Jackson’s shout brings Scott back to the phone call and he shakes his head to clear it as Jackson says, “What now? I’ve done thirty.”

“Just see if he’s breathing, see if his hearts beating.”

Jackson leans over Stiles again, he’s still not breathing and his skin is starting to look even paler. He lets out a sound of frustration as his hands go back over Stiles’ chest, “Hurry up, please hurry up.”

“The ambulance should be there, probably right after Derek and Isaac, they called it on their way.” Scott says, doing his best to stay calm, “Just, keep doing what you’re doing. You can do it.”

Another round of compressions are almost completed by the time Isaac and Derek come barreling through the door. They stand shocked, looking at the blood surrounding Stiles and the way that Jackson is hardly holding it together. Then they’re snapped back into motion and Isaac is kneeling next to Jackson, pushing his hands against the knife wound that extends from Stiles’ belly button almost all the way up to his ribs on his right side.

Derek kneels across from them and makes eye contact with a terrified Jackson as he asks, “Do you want me to do it?”

“No.” Jackson snaps, “I can do it.”

Scott is saying something on the phone but Derek’s ears focus on the wailing of an ambulance turning onto the block. With a look around the room he realizes that there are still two bodies lying on the floor and that won’t do anything to help the situation once help gets there. He grabs a hold of one arm of each hunter and starts pulling them out thanking Jackson silently in his head for making the kill by snapping necks instead of a bloody mess. Just after he pushes them into a room down the hall the ambulance is pulling into the driveway so he heads out the door, back to the front of the house, and meets them there. Two EMT’s jump out of the vehicle and are asking Derek a million questions at rapid pace as they make their way back to where Jackson and Isaac are still hunched over Stiles.

They take survey of the room for a second before pushing the two out of the way and getting to work themselves. One is pushing oxygen over Stiles’ face, pumping air into his lungs as the other brings a stethoscope out to push against his chest. Her mouth presses into a firm line as she pulls open a case that she’d carried in and says, “We’ve got to shock him.”

The three realize she’s talking to them, keeping them calm by telling them what’s going on, and all start to nod as she uses a pair of scissors to cut open Stiles’ shirt, pushing it to the side. Then she’s flipping some switches, turning some dials, and putting the paddles to Stiles’ chest. The guy pulls back then, pulling the oxygen off his face, and she presses down.

Stiles’ back arches as the electricity passes through him and that is the moment that Scott and Lydia make it there. Lydia sucks in a breath and Scott looks like he’s going to collapse then and there, but then the girl is putting the stethoscope back to his chest again and she smiles at them briefly, “We’ve got his heart beating.”

Jackson didn’t realize how much he needed to hear that until his shoulders slump forward and Derek is giving one a squeeze and nodding at him approvingly when Jackson looks up, “Good job.”

They watch as the two EMT’s get Stiles onto a stretcher and start to lift him up, the male keeping the oxygen snug over Stiles’ face as they make their way back out to the waiting ambulance. “One of you can ride along if you want.”

Scott looks pleadingly at the rest of them and they all nod him forward. He climbs into the back and they see him grab ahold of Stiles hand with both of his, muttering something under his breath to Stiles that the rest of them can’t hear. Then the ambulance is taking off and leaving the four others to stand there and figure out what to do next.

“We should be there.” Lydia decides, “He’d want us there, and Scott would too.”

“You’re right.” Isaac says, “Jackson?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jackson says absently, “Let’s go. I’ll go.”

“What about his car?” Lydia asks, “Should we really leave it here?”

“I’ll drive it.” Isaac says, “Jackson, you’re in no state to be at the wheel. Ride with whoever but we’ll all meet there in a few minutes anyway.”

He ends up getting in the car with Lydia who gives his back a light pat on their way, promising him that he did everything he could and that it’d be alright. As much as her voice didn’t waver, her eyes were watery and full of fear and she looked away before Jackson could catch sight of that.

Scott is waiting for them in the entrance of the hospital with his hands twisting together and eyes red and puffy. Isaac sits down right next to him while the others stand there awkwardly, not feeling like they can relax enough to sit but feeling out of place just standing there. Derek mutters something about going to get them all coffee which prompts Lydia and Jackson to sit down across from where Scott and Isaac are.

Derek gets back to them and they all settle into a tension ridden silence until Melissa walks out with a gentle smile and promises them, “He’s alright.”

A wave of relief passes over all of them, their shoulders slouching a little bit as Melissa comes forward and sits on the other side of Scott, directly across from Derek who tries to act nonchalant but he’s so busy making sure Jackson is okay that his own concern still manages to slip through the cracks.

“They got him all stitched up and he was lucky that the knife didn’t hit any of his major internal organs. Obviously, blood loss was an issue but they’ve controlled that as well. There’s a few cracked ribs but none of them are broken and it’ll just take a while to heal. He’ll be in pain but he’ll be okay.”

“When can we go see him?” Scott asks as soon as she stops talking.

“You can follow me now.” Melissa says with a smile, starting up and leading them back toward Stiles’ room. “Don’t get him worked up, even laughing will hurt his ribs so be gentle.”

As soon as they step into the room a doped up Stiles is grinning at them like they’re the best people in the entire world. Scott is flashing over to him in an instant, giving him a quick and very gentle hug before setting himself down in the chair next to the bed. Isaac comes over and gives him a slightly less enthusiastic fist bump but he was beaming at him all the same. Lydia gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before going to lean back against the wall opposite the door. Derek does something similar, barely giving Stiles a reassuring nod.

Then it’s Jackson who is standing in the doorway with a blank look on his face that morphs into guilt as soon as Stiles lays eyes on him. “Dude, not your fault.” Jackson whimpers a little bit which has the rest of them fighting a smirk and Stiles rolling his eyes, “You saved my life, you didn’t put it at risk. It wasn’t your fault. Besides, I'll have a wicked scar.”

Jackson seems to accept that and moves toward Stiles, giving his leg a squeeze before not so subtly moving his hand up to Stiles’ side and pulling any pain that isn’t taken care of by the drugs pumping through his system and resolutely ignoring the fact about the scar. He knows that every time he sees it he'll feel a burst of guilt but hopefully over time that'll diminish. Then Jackson pulls up a third chair to the bed, next to Scott and across from where Isaac found his own seat.

After only a little bit of conversation, Stiles passes out again. Derek tells them that he’s going to go take care of the bodies that they’d left behind. Lydia stands up to leave as well, telling them that she has some other things to check out without actually telling them what she’s doing.

That leaves the three sitting around the bed to fall into an awkward silence and Scott can practically feel the guilt building and starting to roll of Jackson in waves. Isaac must feel it too because he’s quickly snapping his fingers just inches from Jackson’s face and saying, “Stop, nothing you could’ve done differently.”

“Yeah bro, I mean you did better CPR than I usually do.” Scott admits.

“His heart still stopped.”

“And then it started again.” Isaac says, smiling a little bit, “It’s fine. He’s okay.”

“I would’ve had to kill you if you let him die, just out of best friend obligation, but you did everything right, so stop worrying about it. You saved him and he’s saved you, that’s how pack works.”

“Who would’ve thought, you worrying about Stiles.” Isaac says with a smirk, “Usually, you’d be the one jumping for glee that he’s in the hospital and can’t annoy you.”

Jackson lets out an involuntary growl at that which has both Isaac and Scott putting up their hands in surrender before he manages to control it again and instead glares, “Not exactly a good feeling to be worried about people.”

“I mean, I think it’s good that it means you care. And that they’d care about you if you were in the same situation.” Scott says, making both Jackson and Isaac look at him a little incredulously because he rarely delves into sentimental speeches if he can avoid them. Then he’s rolling his eyes and saying, “Give me a break, my best friend almost died today, I think I’ve earned the right to be a little sappy.”

They all relax back into a much more comfortable quiet, leaning back in their seats enough to be comfortable for the next time Stiles wakes up. Odds were that he’d be in pain, cranky, and confused which were all things easily taken care of by three supernatural creatures. As far as Scott figured, Jackson would pull pain guiltily until he'd completely healed, Isaac would make him laugh to keep him from worrying about what had happened, and then Scott would explain to him what had happened to the best of his abilities every time he asked. They’d be alright.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh god I can't think of a good title to save my life and apologies for any grammatical errors.


End file.
